How to get data on the go at no real cost

If you are out and about with your tablet or laptop and don’t fancy going into a coffee shop to get a dose of caffeine and some free Wi-Fi, then you’ll probably be thinking about how you can be online when you are not near free Wi-Fi hotspots.

But so-called free Wi-Fi isn’t always free especially when it’s a coffee shop, burger joint or pub where even though you’ve got access to their Wi-Fi network, there’s always the temptation to spend money on food and drink and that free Wi-Fi can end up very expensive once you’ve had a couple of espressos or a sandwich and drink.

So what can you do if you want true mobile access for you tablet or laptop and even use it on the train or bus? The answer is get yourself a data SIM to put in your tablet if it offers 3G or 4G connectivity or buy a small MiFi device with a mobile SIM and turn your MiFi device into its own hotspot so your tablet or laptop can get full net connectivity.

All the mobile phone networks offer data SIMs that go into tablets or MiFi devices and prices range from as little as £5 a month for 1GB of data and up. Or you could get it for pretty much nothing on a monthly basis apart from a one-off cost and have your access sponsored by advertisers.

There’s currently two excellent services that provide free of charge mobile data with only a one-off set-up charge.

Ovivo Mobile – Just like its phone service, Ovivo offers for a one-off charge of £20, 1GB of data every month with no ongoing charges. £5 of the £20 is used for admin purposes with the rest being turned into credit that you can use if you exceed the monthly allowance. If you need additional credit for a fixed monthly fee it charges £5 a month for 2GB of data. For most users, the free allowance of 1GB is plenty and when you consider that 1GB anywhere else will cost at least £5 a month elsewhere, Ovivo Mobile quickly pays for itself.

In return for Ovivo’s offering you will see advertising appearing every so often on the web browser of your device but that’s a small price to pay for what is a very cost-effective data service. Ovivo uses Vodafone’s network for its connectivity which means you should pretty much get decent coverage across the country.

Samba Mobile – Like Ovivo Mobile, Samba’s free data service is supported by advertising and paying a small one-off admin fee of £5 to get a SIM. In the case of Samba, you will need to watch advertisements in a web browser and for every ad you watch, they give you around 3.5MB of credit. Watching just an average of five a day over a month would mean you get 500MB of data. The ads themselves are the type you would normally see on the web and are from major brands like Cadbury and Compare the Market. Most ads last for between 30 seconds and 60 seconds though there are some which last a few minutes. In order to get your credit you need to watch the full advert, so no sneaky trying to fast forward.

On average there’s around 10 ads to watch a day which means it’s very easy to get yourself 1GB of data a month and if you don’t use your data credit, it rolls over, so you don’t lose anything. If you need more data, then Samba charge a one-off £5 which gives an additional 500MB that has to be used within 30 days.

Both Ovivo and Samba have been around for more than a year and built up a following among their users for providing great free services and if you want to jump onto the mobile data revolution, then either of these two companies will help you out.

Some say that ad supported networks may not work but Ovivo and Samba are showing that if you build up a good customer base for a good quality free offering, it can work.

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